The United States Educational Structure

The United States Educational Structure

Other pressures also operate at the university level. Most universities require mid-semester and final (end-of-semester) examinations. It is possible, as a great many students have learned, to "flunk out" of a university that is to be asked to leave because of poor grades. And most students who have scholarships must maintain a certain grade average to keep their scholarships.

Since tuition fees alone can be rather high (ranging from some $20,000 for an academic year at Harvard, Yale or Stanford to under $ 1,000 at small public institutions) at most colleges and universities, a large number of students hold jobs besides studying. These part-time jobs may be either "on campus" (in the dormitories, cafeterias, students services, in research, and in teaching and tutoring jobs) or "off campus" (with local firms and businesses, in offices, etc.). In this way, for example, more than half of all students at Stanford University earn a significant part of their college expenses during the school year. In addition, there are work-study programs at a number of universities, and financial assistance programs, which are provided by the states and the federal government. At Michigan State University, for instance, 50 percent of all students receive some form of financial aid through the university, and 85 percent of undergraduate students worked part-time on campus during the academic year 1991-92. At Harvard, 74 percent of beginning students ("freshmen") and 61 percent of continuing students received financial aid in the 1991 -92 academic year. The average award for the 66 percent of beginning students receiving aid at Stanford was $13,600 per year. Students who must work as well as study are the rule rather than the exception. Students also cannot simply move from one university to another, or trade places with other students. Before changing to another university, students must first have been accepted by the new university and have met that university's admission requirements.
The competition and pressures at many universities, especially at the higher, graduate levels, are not pleasant. Nor are they evident in the popular picture of campus life. However, this system has been highly successful in producing scholars who are consistently at the top or near the top of their fields internationally. One indication of this can be seen by looking at the textbooks or professional journals used and read in foreign universities and noting the authors, where they teach and where they were trained. Another indication, less precise perhaps, is the number of Americans who have won Nobel Prizes. Americans have won 168 Nobel Prizes in the science alone-physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine - since the awards were first given in 1901. This represents over 40 percent of all recipients. The next closest country is Great Britain, with 69 Nobel Prizes. If most Americans are very critical of their educational system at the elementary and secondary school levels, many will also admit that their higher education system is "in many respects, the best in the world."

Reform and Progress
A major conflict has always existed between two goals of American education. One is the comprehensive, egalitarian education with the goal of providing equal opportunity. The other is the highly selective educational emphasis that aims at excellence and the training of academic and scientific elite. Some Americans feel that more money and efforts should be spent on improving comprehensive education. Others think that more money should be provided for increasing scientific knowledge and maintaining America's position in technology and research. And some people, of course, demand that more money be spent on both.
A series of studies in the 1980s criticised American public schools. As a result, better training and payment for teachers has been advocated and more stress has been placed on academic subjects. But striking a balance between a comprehensive, egalitarian education and one of specialisation and excellence has always been a difficult task, and is likely to remain so.
Schools and universities have also been asked to do more and more to help with, or even cure, certain social and economic problems, from the effects of divorce to drug problems, from learning disabilities to malnutrition. Most school systems not only have lunchrooms or cafeterias, they also offer to give free or low-cost meals, sometimes including breakfast, to needy pupils. They also employ psychologists, nurses, staff trained to teach the handicapped, reading specialists, and academic as well as guidance and employment counsellors. Because of their traditional ties with the communities, schools are expected to be involved in many such areas. There is a growing belief among some Americans that the public schools cannot really handle all such social problems, even if enough money were available where it is most needed.

Examining Schools

One of the major markers of education in America - and one that is often noted by observers abroad - is the degree of constant self-examination. In the U.S. today, when pupils and students are tested, so, in effect, are their teachers, the curricula, the schools and universities, and the entire set of systems.

Each year hundreds of research studies are published which critically examine the nation's schools. Most of the large school districts employ full-time educational researchers. Almost all of the universities have departments for educational research and measurement. And, of course, there are many public and private institutes, educational commissions, think tanks, foundations, and professional organisations, which publish their reports and studies and voice their opinions. Newspapers publicly report the test results of local schools each year. These are compared with those of other cities, states, or countries. How do our schools "measure up?" What are the weaknesses? What can be done? This evaluation process is constant and continuing across the country.
In certain periods this examination is more intense. When the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite in 1957, a great debate across the United States started. Was America "falling behind" in science and technology and in "the space race?" How did American school children compare in mathematics and foreign languages? This led to a massive investment in science education as well as to a search for, and support of, gifted pupils. The Civil Rights movement, too, had a shock effect on American education, all the way from pre-school programs to post-doctoral studies. Billions of dollars were made available for special programs for the educationally disadvantaged, for bilingual education, and for seeing minority students better represented in higher education. In the 1980s and into the '90s, again, America was swept by a great public debate over the quality, content, and goals of education.
Summing up results is extremely difficult. There are, for instance, literally thousands of special programs and hundreds of experimental schools across the nation. Since 1968 alone, Native American tribes have established 24 colleges of their own, mostly two-year institutions. In 1991, a survey of programs offering literacy instruction to linguistic minority students had 600 different programs return a questionnaire. Of these programs, all but 10 had been started since 1980. School "choice" approaches - allowing parents more freedom in determining which public, or, in some cases, private schools their children can attend - have been started in many districts. And, as another example, many areas have started "magnet" schools. These offer special curricula, perhaps an emphasis on science, mathematics, or even dance, and attract, and motivate, students.
Given America’s history and that of its people, their many backgrounds, needs, and desires, the fact that American education is sensitive to its weaknesses (and aware of its strengths) speaks well for the future.

THE FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS
Numbers
It has been customary ever since Euclid’s time to present geometry in the form of an axiomatic system. Some other, different approaches to geometry have been developed by mo­dern mathematicians, but this axiomatic approach has conti­nued to be widely used and presented to beginners.
Our mathematics of numbers, however, has not traditionally been organized in axiomatic form. Arithmetic, school algebra, and such subjects as the differential and integral calculus (which go under the heading of analysis) have customarily been pre­sented as collections of rules of calculation, rather than in the form of axiomatized systems of laws.
This difference arises from the fact that our modern mathematics of numbers has its origins more in the mathematics of the Babylonians, Hindus, and Arabs than in that of the Greeks. The Greeks did treat some numerical problems, to be sure, but in doing so their method was to give geometrical interpretations to numbers; that is, when dealing with a problem about the comparative size of two numbers, they would treat it as a problem about the comparative lengths of two lines or the comparative areas of two figures.
But the Babylonians, Hindus, and Arabs (to whom we owe the word “algebra”) gradually developed sym­bols and rules of calculation that made it possible to deal with numerical problems more abstractly and more powerfully than could the Greeks. As was typical in Eastern mathematics, however, the Babylonians, Hindus, and Arabs did not much concern themselves with giving proofs, let alone with organizing their knowledge of numbers into axiomatic form.
Thus it happened that while geometry was being handed down¹ through medieval and early modern times in the axiomatized form which Euclid had given it, the mathematics of number was passed along² as a collection of comparatively unconnec­ted laws and rules of calculation. This situation is finally changing; one of the striking features of twentieth-century mathematics is its greatly increased use of the axiomatic approach in mathematical studies besides geometry.
From very early times, the development of the mathematics of number must have given rise to philosophical puzzlement. The whole numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. are not too disturbing, to be sure, for their legitimacy seems clear to us as we count the number of beasts in a herd or of kings in a dynasty. The fractions also are not too disturbing, for we can regard them clients of whole numbers, useful for comparing the sizes of fields or lengths of time.
But one can imagine that there have been difficulties when the Babylonians, wishing to express the result of subtracting a number from itself, introduced a symbol for zero, and eventually began to treat it just as through zero were one of the whole numbers. Zero seems like an emptiness, like nothing; how then can we legitimately refer to zero as though it were something, a genuine number? No doubt this uneasiness was gradually soothed ³ as people came to realize that zero is just for “counting”, the number of beasts in an empty field, or the number of kings during a republican era.
The introduction of symbols for negative numbers must have been a further source of difficulties, however; negative numbers seem somehow to be numbers that are not there, unreal ghosts of numbers – so is it legitimate to call them numbers? In modern times the introduction of symbols for imaginary numbers excited similar doubts. Even if we admit the legitimacy of talk about negative numbers, is it correct to speak of the square root of minus one as if it were a number? Wouldn't it be more honest just to say that minus one has no square root?
Philosophical puzzlement about the various kinds of numbers was much reduced⁴ thanks to the work of nineteenth century mathematicians who developed a unified theory of numbers. Their very important achievement consisted in showing how the mathematical theories concerning more sophisticated kinds of numbers can be “reduced to”, “constructed from”, a theory concerning only the basic kind of numbers. That is, they showed how each of the more sophisticated kinds of number, together with the operations (such as addition and multiplication) performable on numbers of that kind, can be defined in terms of the whole numbers and the operations performable upon them. They showed that this can be done in such a way that the laws which govern these more sophisticated kinds of numbers can then be deduced from the laws that govern the numbers.
This development is called the arithmetization analysis, because it is concerned with showing how those parts of mathematics that go under the heading of analysis, can be reduced to the elementary part of arithmetic (or elementary number theory, as it is called), when that is supplemented by certain notions that we shall mention.
This unified theory of numbers enables us to regard the various kinds of numbers as belonging to a single family, all springing from a single parent kind and all governed by laws that are strict deductive consequences of the laws governing that simple parent kind. If we accept this unified theory of numbers, we no longer need feel any special doubts about the more sophisticated kinds of number; any doubts that remain will be focused solely upon the numbers of the kind used in counting.
The numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., will serve as our basic kind of numbers; they are called natural numbers (unfortunately that term has a slight ambiguity, for some writers include zero among the natural numbers while others do not but let us count it in). Now, our intuitive idea of the natural numbers is that they are all those numbers, each of which can be reached by starting from zero and adding one as often as necessary.
The Italian mathematician Peano was the first to organize the fundamental laws of these numbers in axiomatic form; his set of five axioms is notable. Let us consider these axioms so that we can feel more at home with the natural numbers before we go on to see how other kinds of number can be reduced to them. Expressed in words, Peano's axioms are:
1) Zero is a natural number.

2) The immediate successor⁵ of any natural number is a natural number.

3) Distinct natural numbers never have the same immediate successor.

4) Zero is not the immediate successor of any natural number.

5) If something holds true of zero, and if, whenever it holds true of a natural number, it also holds true of the imme­diate successor of that natural number, then it holds true of all natural numbers.
These axioms contain three undefined terms: “zero”, “ immediate successor”, and “natural number”. The axioms by themselves do not show us what these terms are supposed to mean (though they do connect together whatever meanings these terms may have), nor do they give us any evidence that the terms do refer to anything real.
If we wish to accept the axioms as true we must supply that understanding and that evidence for ourselves. Underlying the use of these terms in the axioms are the tacit assumptions that “zero” does refer to some one definite entity among those under discussion, and that for each entity among those under discussion there is just one entity among them that is its immediate successor.
It fol­lows from the axioms that the immediate successor of zero, its immediate successor, and so on and on, all are natural num­bers; and (by the fifth axiom) that nothing else is a natural number. From the axioms it follows that there must be infini­tely many natural numbers, since the series cannot stop, nor can it circle back to its starting point (because zero is not the immediate successor of any natural number).
The fifth axiom is especially important, for it expresses the assumption which underlies mathematical induction. We can picture how reasoning by mathematical induction works if we imagine a series of dominoes standing in a row. Suppose we know that the first domino will fall and that whenever any domino falls the adjoining one also will fall; then we are entitled to infer that all the dominoes will fall; no matter how many there may be.
In the same spirit, if we know that something holds true of zero and that whenever it holds true of a natural number it also holds true of the immediate succes­sor of that natural number, then we can infer that it holds true of every natural number. On the basis of Peano's axioms, we can introduce the names of further numbers: “one” by definition names the immediate successor of zero, “two” by definition names the immediate successor of one, and so on.
Peano’s axioms express in a very clear way the essential principles about the natural numbers. However, they do not by themselves constitute a sufficient basis to permit the reductions of other higher kinds of numbers – assuming, that is, that we continue to restrict ourselves to the same compara­tively low-level logical principles that are employed for deducing theorems in geometry. There are two reasons for this.
For one thing, Peano’s axioms, do not by themselves provide us even with a complete theory of the natural numbers. If we limit ourselves just to Peano's three primitive terms and to his five axioms, it is impossible for us (using only normal low-level logical principles) to define addition and multiplication in their general sense for these numbers.
So we could not even express within the system, let alone prove within it, such laws as that the sum of natural numbers x and y always is the same number as the sum of y and x, or that x times the sum of y and z always is the same number as the sum of x times y and x times z. We do not even worry about subtraction and division, since these are not operations freely performable on the natural numbers.
Furthermore, in order to carry out this reduction of higher kinds of number we need to employ two other very important terms, “set” and “ordered pair”, which Peano of course did not include among his primitives.
Notes

1. while geometry was being handed down – в то время как геометрия дошла

2. the mathematics of number was passed along – математика числа пришла к нам в виде

3. this uneasiness was gradually soothed – это неудобство по­степенно сгладилось

4. philosophical puzzlement... was much reduced – философские сомнения... были в основном разрешены

5. the immediate successor – непосредственный последующий элемент

THE FACULTY OF BIOLOGY

What Is a Mutation?

The body is like a Chinese puzzle¹ box. It consists of organs, such as liver, legs, eyes. The organs consist of tissues, such as bone, muscle, nerve. The tissues consist of cells. The cell contains a nucleus. The nucleus contains chromosomes. The chromosomes carry the genes. Mutations are changes in chromosomes and genes.

The cell and the nucleus can be seen under the microscope, but the chromosomes cannot always be seen. They become visible only at certain stages in the life of the cell, namely², when the cell divides to give two daughter cells. They then appear as rod-like or dot-like structures which, in thin tissue slices (слой, срез), can be stained with certain dyes which they take up more readily than the rest of the cell. The genes are too small to be seen even with a high-power microscope. The genes are arranged linearly along the chromosomes. Some particularly big chromosomes show a visible subdivision into smaller units, so that they look like strings of beads, or like ribbons with a pattern of cross-bands? These beads and bands are much too big to be the genes themselves, but they indicate the position of the genes on the chromosomes.
The number of chromosomes in the nucleus is characteristic for each species. Man has 46, the mouse (мышь) 40, the broad bean plant (боб) 12, maize (кукуруза) 20. Each chromosome carries hundreds of thousands of genes. It has been estimated⁴ that the chromosomes in a human cell carry at least 40,000 genes, possibly twice as many. This seems a large number, but it is not so large when we consider that the genes between them are responsible for all that is inborn and inherited in us. Genes determine whether we belong to blood-group A or О, whether we are born with normal vision or not, whether we have brown, blue or hazel eyes, whether on a rich diet we grow fat⁵ or remain slim (стройный), whether musical education makes virtuosi of us or we are unable to distinguish one tune (мелодия) from another, and so on through the thousands of details which together make up our physical and mental personalities.
Every time, before a cell divides, each chromosome makes another chromosome just like itself with the same genes in the same order. Then, when two cells arise from one, the old chromosomes separate from their new-formed duplicates and both "daughter cells" receive exactly the same numbers and types of chromosomes and genes.
The human body develops from a single cell, the fertilized egg, which contains 46 chromosomes. The egg divides to form two cells; these divide again to form four cells, and so it goes on until the whole body with its billions of cells has been formed. Before every cell di­vision, chromosomes and genes are duplicated. Every cell therefore contains the same 46 chromosomes carrying the same genes.
The process by which chromosomes and genes are duplicated is remarkably accurate. It results in millions and billions of cells with exactly the same genes. But sometimes, perhaps once in a million times, something goes wrong⁶. A gene undergoes a chemical change, or the new gene is not exactly like the old one, or the order of the genes in the chromosome has been changed. This process of change in a gene or chromosome is called a mutation. Its result, the altered gene or chromosome, is also often called mutation, but to avoid confusion⁷ it is better to speak of a mutated gene and a re-arranged chromosome, and reserve the term mutation for the process which produced them. The individual, which shows the effect of a mutated gene or re-arranged chromosome, is called a mutant.
When a chromosome on which a mutation has occurred makes a duplicate of itself in preparation for the next cell division, it copies the mutated gene or the new gene arrangement as accurately as it copies the unaltered portions. In this way a mutation is inherited and becomes perpetuated⁹ exactly like the original gene from which it arose. The enormous variety of genes which are found in every living species results from mutations, many of which may have occurred millions of years ago.
Notes

1. 
   Chinese puzzle – неразрешимая загадка
   
2. 
   namely – а именно
   
3. 
   ribbons with a pattern of cross-bands – ленты с поперечными полосами
   
4. 
   estimate – подсчитывать
   
5. 
   grow fat – толстеть, полнеть
   
6. 
   go wrong – разладиться, испортиться
   
7. 
   to avoid confusion – чтобы избежать путаницы
   
8. 
   perpetuate – сохранять навсегда, увековечивать
   

Evolution and Heredity

More than a hundred years ago people believed that plants and animals have always been as they are now. They thought that all the different sorts of living things, including men, had been put here by some mysterious (таинственный) power.

It was Charles Darwin, born at Shrewsbury in February, 1809, who showed that this was just a legend. As a boy Darwin loved to walk about the countryside collecting insects, flowers and minerals. He enjoyed helping his elder brother at chemical experiments in a shed (сарай) at the far end of their garden.
These hobbies interested him much more than Greek and Latin, which were his main lessons at school. His father, Dr. Robert Darwin, sent Charles to Edinburgh University to study medicine. But Charles disliked the medical career. He spent a lot of time with a zoologist friend watching birds and other animals in their natural state and collecting insects in the surrounding countryside.
Then his father sent him to Cambridge to become a clergyman¹. But Darwin did not care for lectures. He did not want to be a clergyman. At 22 he graduated from Cambridge University and soon was offered an unpaid post as naturalist on the ship "The Beagle".
The young naturalist asked himself whether all forms of life always existed just as they are now. This was what everyone believed and what he had been taught, but he doubted it very much. Three and a half years travelling around the world on the British ship "The Beagle" convinced Darwin that his doubts were justified. He returned from his travels convinced that man and all the living creatures on earth today are related. All have grown from earlier types, and those from earlier ones in an unbroken line back to a primitive one-cell creature.
More than a thousand million years ago, a small blob of jelly¹ floated on the shallow seas of the young earth. It and others like it were the only life on earth. In half a milliard years that blob of jelly had become different kinds of sea worms (червь) and sea scorpions, sea weeds (морские водоросли) and other simple sea plants.
During the next half milliard years some of this life crawled (ползти) onto the barren (бесплодный) land. The first land animals were "amphibians", equally at home on land and in the water, like present-day frogs. There were also primitive scorpions, the descendants of which became insects or spiders (паук). From the seaweeds that took root on shore came ferns (папоротник) and mosses (мох). The amphibian became reptiles. For one hundred million years they ruled the earth. Out of them came birds and mammals. Gradually the mammals changed into all the different kinds we have today, including man. Each of these changes was very gradual and took thousands of years.
What makes you and your brothers and sisters look somewhat alike? What makes all of you look like your father and mother, and yet also a little different? The answer is to be found in the laws of heredity.
Gregor Mendel, son of an Austrian farmer, wanted to be a scientist but couldn't afford the university. He became an Augustinian monk3 and, in the years between 1843 and 1865, he became a great scientist. In the garden of the monastery he raised garden peas – pure tails, pure dwarf (карликовый) and so on. Then, when he was sure he had pure strains, he began crossing them. He did the same with green and yellow peas. In all he raised and studied more than 10,000 specimens.
From the way these peas transmitted and inherited various traits such as height or colour, Mendel worked out the laws of heredity. They have been found to be true for all types of plants and animals, including man, and have been widely used in the improvement of flowers and agricultural crops and the breeding of dogs and livestock.

Notes

1. 
   clergyman – священник
   
2. 
   blob of jelly – студенистая капля (комочек)
   
3. 
   Augustinian monk – монах-августинец
   

Animal Behaviour

Wherever people have a chance to watch animals – at a zoo, park, pet store, or circus – it is evident that animal behaviour is a source of fascination¹ for most humans. As they watch animals at play and at rest, feeding or protecting themselves, and tending to their young, frequently marvel (восхищаться) at the similarities between animal and human behaviour. These similarities are, in fact, one important reason for study­ing the activities of animals: that is, their implications for the better understanding of human behaviour.

The question of why animals behave the way they do has attracted the interest of scientists from many fields – psychologists, zoologists, ecologists, geneticists, endocrinologists – to name a few.
What is Behaviour? Simply defined, behaviour is activity in response to an internal or external stimulus. All animals make adjustments to information or stimuli, from their external and internal environments. These adjustments may be voluntary or involuntary, and may range from a simple, single act to a complex and elaborate sequence of activities.
Taxis, Kinesis, Reflex. A very important behavioural response in the lives of many invertebrates and some vertebrates is the taxis. This is a directional movement in response to a specific type of environmental stimulus. The taxis response is inborn, and need not be learned; but it is fixed, and cannot be altered to suit unusual conditions.
For example, a moth navigates in a straight line by keeping at a constant angle to the parallel rays of the sun (or more often the moon, since most moths are nocturnal). This taxis works well under natural conditions. However, it can cause trouble² when the light source is so

near that it produces diffused instead of parallel rays, as in the case of a candle (свеча) or a light bulb³. In this case, instead of a straight path, the constant angle may lead the moth into a spiral, so that it circles

ever inward toward the light source and is eventually burned to death.
Another involuntary behaviour pattern, best known in simple organisms, is kinesis. This is an increase or decrease in the movement of an animal in proportion to the intensity of a stimulus. Such movements are not directional like the taxis. Instead, they consist of increases in the rate of turning from side to side, or in other body movements. Planarians, for instance, when placed in the light, do not swim directly back to the darker areas where they normally stay. Instead, they continue weaving from side to side, but they turn more strongly toward the side where they encounter less intense light. This turning eventually bring them back to the dark area.
A third behaviour pattern involving relatively simple, innate responses to stimuli is reflex. A reflex is the involuntary movement of some part of the animal's body in response to a stimulus. A familiar example is the kicking motion you make when the tendons below your kneecap are struck by a doctor's hammer. Unlike the taxis and kinesis, the reflex does not involve a complete body movement.

Notes

1. 
   a source of fascination – источник восхищения
   
2. 
   trouble – неприятность, беда
   
3. 
   a light bulb – электрическая лампочка
   

THE FACULTY OF GEOGRAPGY
The Face of Britain
From south to north Great Britain stretches for over 900 km and from east to west,in the widest part, only for about 500 km. But despite its small area Britain has a great diversity of physical characteristics. It contains rocks of nearly all geological periods. There is a contrast between the relatively high relief of eastern and northern Britain and the lowland areas of the south and east. In general, the oldest rocks appear in the highland regions and the youngest in the lowland regions.
ENGLAND. Though England cannot be considered as a very hilly country still it is far from being flat everywhere. The most important range of mountains is the Pennine range, regarded as "the backbone of England". It stretches from the Tyne valley in the north to the Trent valley in the south —a distance of about 250 km. The whole range forms a large table-land the highest point of which is Cross Fell (893 m). Being an upland region the Pennines form a watershed separating the westward-flowing from the eastward-flowing rivers of north England. They also form a barrier between the industrial areas of Lanca­shire and Yorkshire on their opposite sides. Rainfall in the Pennines is abundant, and today the area is used for water storage: reservoirs in the uplands supply water to the industrial towns on each side of the Pennines.
Across the north end of the Pennines there are the grassy Cheviot Hills. The highest point is the Cheviot (816m), near the Scottish border. The Cheviot Hills serve as a natural borderland between England and Scotland. The region is noted for sheep-breeding. In north-west England, separated from the Pennines by the valley of the river Eden _t lie the Cumbrian mountains. These mountains form a ring round the peak of Helvellyn (950 in). The highest peak of the Cumbrians is Scafell (978 m). The valleys which separate the various mountains from each other contain some beautiful lakes (Windermere, Grasmere, Ullswater, Hawswater, and others). This is the famous Lake District, the favourite place of holiday-makers and tourists. It is here that the great English poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Quincey lived and wrote. The Lake District, or Cumberland is sparsely populated and sheep rearing is the main occupation of the farmers. A typical farmhouse here is built of stone. Around it are a number of small fields, separated from one another by stone walls. The Lake District is exposed to the westerly winds and rainfall is exceptionally high. The region is claimed to be the wettest inhabited place in the British Isles.
The South-West Peninsula of Great Britain includes the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. The region is made up of a number of upland masses separated by lowlands. The uplands of the South-West Peninsula are not ranges of mountains or hills, but areas of high moorland, rising to 600m.
The South-West region is mostly an agricultural area, because there are many fertile river valleys on the lower land be­tween the moors, both in Cornwall and Devon.
South-West England is noted for two other interesting things: the most westerly point of Great Britain - Land's End, and the most southerly point of the largest island - Lizard Point, are to be found here. The South-West Peninsula presents attrac­tions for the holiday-makers and the artists, and tourism is one of the most important activities of the region.
WALES. Wales is the largest of the peninsulas on the western side of Britain. It is a country of hills and mountains deeply cut by river valleys. The mountains cover practically all the territory of Wales and are called the Cambrian mountains. The highest peak, Snowdon (1,085 m),is in the north-west. The lowland is confined to the relatively narrow coastal belt and the lower parts of the river valleys.
In the south the Cambrian mountains include an important coalfield, on which an industrial area has grown. Two-thirds of the total population live in South Wales. Two relief divisions may be distinguished in South Wales: a coastal plain which in the south-eastern part around Cardiff becomes up to 16 km wide and the upland areas of the coalfield proper, which rises between 245 and 380 metres. These divisions formed by the physical landscape are clearly reflected in the use of agricultural land. In the upland areas sheep are the basis of the rural economy, and in the low-lying parts near the coast and in the valleys dairy farming predominates. But in general South Wales is dominated by the coal­mining and heavy industries.
SCOTLAND. Geographically Scotland may be divided into three major physical regions: the Highlands, the Southern Uplands and the Central Lowlands.
The Highlands lie to the west of a line from Aberdeen to the mouth of the river Clyde. The mountains are separated into two parts by the long straight depression known as Glen More, running from north-

east to south-west. To the south are the Grampian mountains, which are generally higher than the Northwest Highlands, including the loftiest summits such as Ben Nevis (1,347 m), the highest peak in the British Isles, and Ben Macdhui (1,309 m). An observatory has been erected at the very top of Ben Nevis.

Glen More contains several lakes, including Loch Ness, which is said to be the home of a "monster". In the early I9th century the lochs (lakes) were joined lo form the Caledonian Canal which connected the two coasts.
The Highlands comprise forty-seven per cent of the land area of Scotland, andthe region has the most severe weather experienced in Britain. The population is sparse.
The economy of the region has traditionally been that of crofting or Jife supporting farming, in which the farmer (crofter) and his family consume all the produce. The crofter grows crops on a patch of land near his cottage, the main crops being potatoes, oats and hay. His sheep graze on the nearby hill slopes, and he may have one or two cows, to keep the family supplied with milk, and some poultry.
The Southern Uplands extend from the Central Lowlands of Scotland in the north to the Cheviot Hills and the Lake District in the south. The Uplands form a broad belt of pastoral country. The hills rise to 800-900 m, but for the most part they lie between 450 and 600 metres.
The present-day economy of the region is dominated by agriculture. The region is clearly divided between the sheep pastures of the uplands and the more diversified farming areas of the lowlands.
The Central Lowlands of Scotland form the only extensive plain in Scotland. The name is given especially to the plains along the Clyde, the Forth and the Tay. The region lies between the Highlands and theSouthern Uplands. The Central Lowlands have the most fertile soil, the most temperate climate, the best harbours and the only supply of coal. They occupy about fifteen per cent of Scotland's area, but contain about eighty per cent of its people. This is the leading industrial area of Scotland.
Geographically Ireland is an island and a single unit, but politically it is divided. As a whole, Ireland forms a large extensive plain surrounded by a broken belt of mountains, or the uplands.
IN NORTHERN IRELAND the chief mountains are: in the extreme north-east the Antrim mountains, which rise above 400 m and are composed of basalt, in the centre of Ulster — the Sperrin mountains (500 m), and in the extreme south-east the Mourne mountains, including the highest summit Slieve Donard (852 m). Off the north coast is the famous Giant's Causeway, where the basalt solidified in remarkable hexagonal columns.
There is a fairly wide network of rivers in the British Isles. Though generally short in length, they are navigable but in their j lower reaches especially during high tides. Mild maritime climate keeps them free of ice throughout the winter months.
The largest river of Great Britain is the I Severn (350 km), which follows a very! puzzling course from central Wales andflows to the Bristol Channel. The courses of the Trent (274 km) and the upper Thames (346 km) also show many changes of direction and keep their way to the North Sea. Among other important rivers, which flow eastwards, to the North Sea, are the rivers Tyne, Tees, Humber, Ouse in England, and the rivers Tweed, Forth, Dee and Spey in Scotland.
A number of streams flow down to the west coast, to the Irish Sea, including the Mersey, the Eden (in England) and the Clyde in Scotland.
The longest river of the British Isles is the river Shannon (384 km), flowing from north to south of Ireland.
The largest lake in Great Britain and the biggest inland loch in Scotland is Loch Lomond, covering a surface area of 70 sq km, but the largest fresh water lake of the British Isles is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland — 391 sq km.

THE FACULTY OF PHYSICAL CULTURE

Sports and Money

Intercollegiate sports and money have always been a hotly debated topic. Rules prevent any college athlete from accepting money. Whenever some basketball player is found to have accepted "a gift," the sports pages are full of the scandal. As a result, some college teams whose members have violated the rules are forbidden to take part in competitions. Several universities, like the highly respected University of Chicago, do not take part in any intercollegiate sports whatsoever. Many others restrict sports to those played among their own students, so-called intramural sports and activities.

Those who defend college sports point out that there are no separate institutions or "universities" for sports in the U.S. as there are in many other countries. They also note that many sports programs pay their own way, that is, what they earn from tickets and so on for football or basketball or baseball games often supports less popular sports and intramural games at the university. At some universities, a large portion of the income from sports, say from TV rights, goes back to the university and is used also for academic purposes. Generally, however, sports and academics are separated from one another. You cannot judge whether a university is excellent or poor from whether its teams win or lose.
In the United States, however, there are attitudes towards the mixing of commercialism, money, and sports, or professionals and amateurs, which often differ from those of other nations. The U.S. was, for example, one of only 13 countries to vote in 1989 against allowing professional basketball players to compete in the Olympics. Similarly, American professionals in football, baseball, and basketball are not allowed to wear jerseys and uniforms with advertising, brand names, etc. on them. The National Football League does not allow any team to be owned by a corporation or company. And when a city wants to build a new stadium or arena, voters get the chance to vote (and "no" is not uncommon).
Most Americans think that government should be kept separate from sports, both amateur and professional. They are especially concerned when their tax money is involved. The citizens of Denver, Colorado, for example, decided that they did not want the 1976 Winter Olympics there, no matter what the city government and businessmen thought. They voted "no" and the Olympics had to be held elsewhere. The residents of Los Angeles, on the other hand, voted to allow the (Summer) Olympics in 1984 to be held in their city, but they declared that not one dollar of city funds could be spent on them. Because the federal government doesn't give any money either, all of the support had to come from private sources. As it turned out, the L.A. Olympics actually made a profit, some $100 million, which was distributed to national organisations in the U.S. and abroad.
Leisure Sports
The attention given to organised sports should not overshadow the many sporting activities, which are a part of daily American life. Most Americans who grow up in the North, for example, also grow up with outdoor winter sports and activities. Skating, certainly, is one widespread activity, with most cities, large and small, flooding areas for use as skating rinks. Skiing, sledding and tobogganing are equally popular. Students at snow-covered campuses "borrow" the metal or fibreglass trays used in dining halls and race downhill standing up on them (or trying to).
Fishing and hunting are extremely popular in all parts of the country and have been since the days when they were necessary activities among the early settlers. As a consequence, they have never been thought of as upper-class sports in the U.S. And it is easy to forget how much of the country is open land, how much of it is still wild and filled with wildlife. New Jersey, for example, has enough wild deer so that the hunting season there is used to keep the herds smaller. Wild turkeys have also returned to the East and Midwest in great numbers. In Washington, D.C., commuters driving along the Potomac River can often see them flying overhead. Even more remarkable is the return of the black bear in the Northeast, as the forests grow thicker again. New York State has about 4,000 with most of them in the Adirondack, Allegheny, and Catskill mountain areas. In the states of the Midwest and West, of course, there is much more wild game, and hunting there is even more popular.
Hunting licenses are issued by the individual states, and hunting is strictly controlled. Some hunters don't actually hunt, of course. They use it as a good excuse to get outdoors in the autumn or to take a few days or longer away from the job and family. Indoor poker games are rumoured to be a favourite activity of many hunters who head for cabins in the woods.
There are many more fishermen (around 50 million in 1991) than hunters (17 million), and many more lakes and rivers than bears. Minnesota advertises itself on its license plates as the "land of 10,000 lakes." This, of course, is not quite true: there are more. Aerial photographs and maps show that there are about twice that number (each larger than 25 acres). Fishing is so popular in Minnesota that when a recent survey showed that 97 percent of all kids in the state went fishing, a newspaper asked, "What on earth went wrong with the other three percent?" Michigan not only has a long coastline from the Great Lakes, it also has what official descriptions simply call, without counting, "thousands of lakes." From Oregon to Southern California, Maine to Florida to Texas there are the ocean beaches. Finding enough water is no problem for most Americans, and where there's water, there are boats.
Overall (not including rowboats, canoes, or anything else driven by paddles), there is about one boat for every 15 people in the U.S. today (1991). In Minnesota, one out of seven people owns a boat and in Arkansas, one out of nine. In Arizona, a state usually known for its mountains and deserts, there are still enough lakes and reservoirs for over 10,000 boats.
As could be expected, all water sports and activities are very popular, including swimming, skin diving, sailing, white-water canoeing, water skiing, and powerboat and "off-shore" racing. Many Americans, of course, just like to go to the beach on a hot summer day, swim a bit, and then take a nap in the sun. Except for a few areas, such as around New York City, the beaches are not crowded, so long walks along the beaches, for example those of Northern California or those of Lake Superior, are quite relaxing. And, although the thousands of students who head for Florida's beaches each spring get headlines, many more thousands of other Americans enjoy small beach parties where there's no one else except a few friends, a fire, and the warm summer night.

Anything That Has Wheels

There are several sports and sports activities in the U.S., all having their strong supporters, which many people think, are a bit strange or at least unusual. For example, Americans will race just about anything that has wheels. Not just cars, but also "funny cars" with aircraft and jet engines, large trucks with special motors, tractors, pickup trucks with gigantic tires, and even motorcycles with automobile engines. Truck racing, it seems, has made it big in Europe. In 1990, The European paper wrote that in only six years since it found its way across the Atlantic, truck racing was attracting "crowds to rival those of the Formula One grand prix motor racing circus." Other sports are popular because they do not involve motors. The first "people-powered" aircraft to cross the English Channel was pedalled by an American. And the first hot-air balloon to make it across the Atlantic had a crew from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There are also several sports in the U.S. which were once thought of as being "different," but have now gained international popularity. Among these, for instance, is skateboarding. Another example is windsurfing which very quickly spread in popularity from the beaches of California and Hawaii. Hang-gliding became really popular after those same people in California started jumping off cliffs above the ocean. Those who like more than wind and luck attached a small lawnmower engine to a hang-glider and soon "ultra-light-weight" planes were buzzing around.
The triathlon came from a late-night discussion in a Honolulu bar in 1977 about which sport was the most exhausting: swimming, bicycle racing, or long-distance running. Someone suggested that they all be put together. The result was the first "Ironman," in 1978, with 15 participants. This contest was a 3.8 kilometre ocean swim, followed immediately by a 180 kilometre bicycle race, and ending with a 42 kilometre run. Mountain biking, often still called an "American sport," is now really international.
Since the publication of Cooper’s book Aerobics (1968), sports in America turned from an assortment of team activities to what one observer called "a prescription for everyone's health." The emphasis on physical fitness involved increasing numbers of Americans in activities that provide the necessary physical conditioning and at the same time offer enjoyment and recreation. Swimming, jogging, cycling, and callisthenics can be done in company with family members and friends, have no real age limits, and are performed more for health and fun than for competition. Everyone can participate in these activities. The widespread public support for the Handicapped Olympics in the U.S., for example, indicates that "everyone" does, indeed, mean everyone.

Список литературы

1. 
   Барановский Л.С., Козикис Д.Д. How Do You Do, Britain?. Минск; М.: Агентство САДИ: Московский лицей, 1997.
   
2. 
   Гречина О.В., Миронова Е.П. English for students of mathematics. М.: Высшая школа, 1974.
   
3. 
   Макаревская Е.В. English for students of biology. Минск, Вышэйшая школа, 1989.
   
4. 
   Разговорные темы по английскому языку. Пермь, 2007.
   
5. 
   Ройнберг М.Л. English for students of mathematics. Perm, 1977.
   
6. 
   Douglas K. Stevenson. American Life and Institutions. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 1998.
   

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